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Sunday, 7 April 2013

Good afternoon readers, I wanted to dedicate this post to a soul very dear to my heart; a celebratory post for a recent very prominent event in my life. My little Bisbis.From a very young age I've had an obsession with felines, I loved cats so much I used to make a prayer to God every night to summon one and place her in the middle of my room, haha. But my father and sister are really allergic to them and my father hates cats in general so I never experienced the luxury of owning one. In the end of September/October a little black and white kitten no older than 7 months appeared in our garden. At first we didn't think much of it, she had a pink collar with a bell around her neck so we thought she had an owner. Me and my siblings used to pet her and play with her, she was very friendly and far from hostile. Gradually we began to realize that she wasn't leaving our garden, she sat and meowed day and night so we started feeding her. She was so unbelievably lovable and so cute, I instantly fell in love with her. I began to realize that she had some sort of skin infection on her ear and called RSPCA in hopes that they would take her in for the winter as the weather was getting colder. When RSPCA eventually arrived they told me that she had ring worm and it wasn't life threatening or anything but we were able to get it from her, which I did. They also told us if they were to take her in she would be put down. I instantly realized that this was meant to be, God answered my prayers after 10 years! That was the last time I contacted RSPCA. The months to come I took as much care of her as I could, although it killed me that I couldn't bring her into the house in the freezing cold. She's a really strong girl who just wants to be held and fed and loved. At around the beginning of January I noticed 7 different large male cats coming into our garden and sniffing her up, in the course of the week they did their business. It killed me to watch it, it really was horrific; she's so small compared to them, but she survived through it all alhmadulillah. It's nature I guess. I called her Bisbis, it means 'kitty' in the Lebanese dialect, not creative I know but it stuck. The crazy snow came, but she survived it alhamdulillah. I think it was the first time she experienced snow because she was so amazed by it haha.

Contemplating life

She sits on the windowsill of my bedroom and meows till I wake up

Then one day, whilst bringing her into the kitchen to feed her I noticed her stomach was slightly swollen just a little bit and told my mother, she said her being pregnant was a possibility but not to jump to conclusions. In two months it was very apparent that Bisbis was pregnant, she was usually very slim but then had a teardop-shaped lower body. Two and a half months in and I started feeling kicks in her stomach. We were so excited yet so scared that her pregnancy wouldn't be successful. Usually when cats as small as her have their first litter the kittens are usually stillborn, or they are very few of them.

A week before labor, she liked to lay down on her back

She became extra affectionate a couple of days before labor

It was a waiting game for us, we saw the signs of nearing labor but we had no idea when it would happen. I made a box for her with soft material and wool in it, and I fixed it so that it was above the ground and sheltered from above. I trained her to sleep in it, and she really liked it and was very responsive which made me feel at peace. Around this time she had made it a routine to wake me up at 6/7am and made me sit with her and comfort her, I felt like she was nearing, and the kicks were getting more frequent. Around 1pm on Friday, 5th April I went out to the garden to snap some photos for my Womanityshop review and fed her. I noticed a thick yellow secretion nestled around her woman area, I got really worried when I Googled this and read 'urinal desease' everywhere and that it was life-threatening, I sat down and prayed to God after every prayer to make everything alright. I didn't see her for the rest of the day, and she didn't make an appearance on any of my windows.

The next morning she wasn't at my bedroom window either, my anxiousness grew and pessimistic images flashed in my head. The events that occurred after that play in my head in slow motion, I opened the garden door and looked to my right where the box was in the corner, I saw her tired eyes peering at me and surrounding her stomach were these tiny, squealing, furry kittens; I was over the moon. She didn't have three kittens, or four, she had FIVE healthy, breathing kittens.

This is the first photo I took, I was so excited I couldn't even focus, as you can probably see there is dried up body fluids around the right of the box, we changed the box straight away as it was soaked in her fluids.

She had already given birth and cleaned up each kitten all by herself, I felt immensely proud, happy and thankful.

Each of them is treated equally by Bisbis, they're all feeding very well

There faces are so adorable! They make me cry!

It was so surreal, I couldn't believe my eyes. Bisbis did it all on her own, and so far she's been an amazing mother. She spends most of her time feeding and nursing them and only leaves to grab a bite. She trusts us with her babies and usually only leaves her box when we're there. 4 of them are Tabby cats and one of them is solid Black, I've taken a shine for the black one so far, it's face is so cute! And it camouflages in it's mother's fur. I still haven't seen their genders as I'm not planning on handling them until they're at least one week old.

I will make sure to update you guys with more photos and news on how the kittens get on!